ActivKids November Newsletter

21-Nov-2011

It was with great sadness to hear about the recent death of Sir Jimmy Saville. As a child of the eighties, I still can’t believe that Jim will no longer be able to fix it for me, or anyone else, in his fantastic, eccentric way. The inspirational work of Sir Jimmy includes making hundreds of children’s dreams come true over a period of twenty years, at the same time as raising millions and millions of pounds for those less fortunate.

Sir Jimmy’s untimely death follows soon after the loss of another massively inspirational figure, but in a slightly different way, Steve Jobs, the visionary behind Apple.

Both these men dedicated their lives to inspiring, and making a difference to many people’s lives. Their legacies should act as a catalyst for others, particularly in helping children achieve their dreams. In this day-and-age, these dreams can be simple; to stay fit and healthy, prolonging their lives deep into old age.

There are now so many examples for the need to promote physical activity, fitness, health and well being to children. The Childhood Obesity National Support Team (CONST), established in 2007 suggests that 23% of children aged 4 to 5 years and 33% of children aged 10 to 11 years are now overweight or obese, as well as 1 in 5 mothers (source: www.dh.gov.uk) . It is also predicted by CONST that by 2050 25% of ALL children will be OBESE, as well as 60% of men and 50% of women. The implications this has, and will have, on health are catastrophic, as well as DOUBLING the NHS’s current £4.2 billion per year budget.

In July this year, the department of Health released guidelines for children under 5 years of age, recommending 3 hours of physical activity spread through the day (source: www.dh.gov.uk). It is also suggested that children aged between 5 and 18 years should participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

Sir Jimmy would need to be at his very best to inspire this level of activity.

But we can all do our own little bit, putting together each small piece of the jigsaw to help provide a solution. ActivKids want to be part of this solution, and we’re doing what we can…

October saw ActivKids deliver workshops to staff from 11 children’s centre throughout Berkshire and Middlesex. We wanted to inspire workers to deliver fun, exciting physical activity programmes to their children and parents. This is what some of the centres thought:

“Great ideas on how to deliver a physical class to our families, giving us confidence to deliver it”

“Lots of activities to do with the children”

“Ideas and confidence to put an activity session for pre-school children”

Next year see’s changes in the National Curriculum for Primary children being implemented, with PE being given higher priority. ActivKids have spent time with a number of schools, working with teachers, TA’s and HLTA’s, to give ideas on how to deliver fundamental movement skills in a positive and exciting way, whilst still achieving curriculum learning objectives. Below are just a few comments received on these workshops:

“Lots of ideas to improve my repertoire of games. PE and activity can be fun – some of us struggle with this”

“The training book was excellent and it is great that few resources are needed”

“Lots of ideas and inspiration”

So we need as many Sir Jimmy’s and Steve Jobs as possible. I know that my childhood dream of driving with the A-Team in their van can’t be fixed, but if we work together we can go some way to fix it for many more millions of children to enjoy an active life.

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